It’s all in the detail at Auberge Michel
He walks through the restaurant, his eye instinctively checking the details most people would miss – the perfect placing of a serviette, the height of a flower in a vase . . .
Frenchman Michel Morand’s five-star Auberge Michel restaurant in Sandton was listed in November in Eat Out’s top 10 Johnnie Walker Restaurant of the Year for 2005. Only one other Joburg restaurant made it to the top 10 – Yum in Greenside, which took the number one spot.
Others have also noticed Morand’s meticulous attention to detail – in 2005 his restaurant was voted one of Joburg’s top restaurants by Business Day, Diners Club and Wine Magazine. He’s also received the first five-star rating by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, a quality-rating agency for the entire tourism industry. And all this in only two years since opening.
When asked what the secret to this success is, without hesitation Morand says, “Hard work – and being passionate about food and service.”
The restaurant is in a house. An elegant room spills out on to a patio, where the soothing sounds of water trickling into a pond surrounded by a lush garden greet the diner. High-backed brown chairs slip in under white-bedecked tables, under subtle lighting and rich wood beams in the ceiling. There is a private dining room upstairs.
The whitewashed house has restored sash windows and is surrounded by plenty of large trees, a reminder of other times.
Morand rates as some of his top customers Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa and his wife, Wendy Luhabe; other members of the Gauteng legislature; and Joburg’s top businesspeople.
Born in France but now a South African citizen after 14 years in the country, Morand came here in the first place because he saw it as “the land of opportunity”, although France is considered by many to be the land of fine cuisine.
By Lucille Davie
For full article please click here
Courtesy of joburg.org.za/
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